My goal is to have "Take a break" rooms being added to Australian theme parks by the end of 2016. Disneyland & Dollywood already offer this and their positive feedback has been overwhelming. 

It’s time to focus on our kids and surely all parks here in QLD especially should be following the likes of Disneyland & Dollywood in the USA and Thorpe Park in the UK by making plans to accommodate for all families.

I would be very interested in collaborating with the major 4 theme parks and an occupational therapist on behalf of the Autism community, to create a plan and work towards seeing the following changes implemented within Australian theme parks-

•Take a break rooms created as a quiet space for families to go to seek some refuge if their child becomes overwhelmed. The take a break room rooms / sensory rooms could be set up with help of an occupational therapist including an area for the families to eat and bathroom facilities

•Special needs arm bands available for the special needs child and primary carer - allowing access to the rides with no lining up, priority seating and access to the "take a break area"

•Signs throughout the park advising of show time/increased music over loud speakers

•Announcements for special needs families that the characters are approaching the area

•Some special needs children's disabilities are not visible, so allowances need to be made for them to have access to priority seating

•Complimentary noise reducing ear muffs - decorated to reflect the specific theme park they are available in

----------- * UPDATE AS OF SUNDAY JULY 17TH 2016 ----------

Fortunately to date Dreamworld Australia has been wonderful and discussions have commenced on potentially introducing this into their park on the Gold Coast

Unfortunately Village Roadshow have not expressed any interest at all - they have failed to respond to any communication as per the letter addressed to them on Thursday July 14th (SEE BELOW)

Hello Village Roadshow

On Sunday May 15th 2016 as you are aware my family visited one of your parks with our autistic son - movie world is a dream of his and it goes without saying that most children of his age love & dream of seeing the characters within your park.

That evening I wrote on your Facebook page to express my concerns over the noise levels, sensory overload and unfortunate incident that resulted in us having to leave the park - that post generated a lot of interest within Australia and overseas, in turn has led to a television interview with 7 news gold coast and unimaginable support to my goal of having a "take a break room" introduced into all 4 major theme parks on the Gold Coast.

To refresh your memory the link to the initial post is here - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154834312852995&set=o.106147617181&type=3&theater

The next morning your "Guest services" team member was quick to acknowledge the post and asked that I inbox you with my contact details - of course that was done same day and I wanted for a call. Four days later a young lady from your guest services team called me and after a few minutes it was obvious she sadly had not been educated prior to the call on the term "special needs" what I was referring to when mentioning a sensory overload for autistic children nor that my focus was not on you providing prayer rooms for guests it was more that there are no facilities provided for the 1 in 55 children now diagnosed with special needs within our country let alone those that would visit each year from overseas and all greatly benefit from having such a facility.

Fortunately she admitted that her knowledge of the subject was little to none and I thanked her for her time and we ended the call. no use continuing speaking her the young lady on a subject she knows nothing about & it was embarrassing for her to be put in such a position.

as days and week rolled on I have attempted to contact you via;
Facebook (second post) - ignored
email to all 3 of your parks and your head office - ignored
telephone calls - ignored
online enquiry forms completed on all 3 websites and your head office – ignored

I should add that I did receive an automatic generated email from your head office asking for my feedback on my experience of submitting my enquiry online. Naturally I was not able to complete that as you still have not contacted me.

Dreamworld have been amazing through this whole experience and we are in the early stages of discussion as they are very interested in my goal and introducing a “take a break” room within the park – WELL DONE DREAMWORLD.
Recently Dollywood have followed in the steps of Disneyland and introduced a quiet area / room within their park and it’s been fantastic to see shopping centres around Australia doing the same – its time that as stand up for our children and make changes that will benefit so many.

it’s a simple request

throughout the past 8 weeks I have been contacted by numerous families here and overseas who have shared unfortunate stories of their experiences within your parks – some lead to smoking areas to “take a break” in a quiet area of the park for their special needs children, some directed to toilet facilities and some having to leave the parks of just stop attending as there are absolutely no facilities provided for special needs families.

Sensory overload is a major issue for special needs families however not one that should prevent them from enjoying the major theme parks here in qld. We can all work together to make this happen – the ball is still in your court

I noticed for my television interview you were able to respond to channel 7’s request on feedback for my story and mentioned on state wide news that you “do have a facility in place” – sadly we know this is not correct and a smoking area or a toilet block is not the place for special needs kids to spend the time whilst experience a sensory overload/meltdown within the parks.

I have thought further into this and as your prayer rooms are of a substantial size possibly they could be reduced in size if the issue is affecting the overall footprint of the parks and space available and a facility provided for the thousands of families who would attend each of your parks month in month out?
Alternatively maybe one of the repetitive themed stores could be reduced in size allowing for your disability services manager, myself and an autism therapist to discuss the design of the much needed “Take a break” room introduced.

I have a personal blog page that is followed by special needs families here and overseas as well as I follow some extremely well run autism pages and all families are right being my mission of having these amazing facilities made available so the unfortunate stories that have come to light in recent weeks no longer happen.

children’s dreams come true within the parks and working together we can make this happen but there is only so much I can do whilst you fail to even acknowledge my quest – you can view the page I have set up to create awareness on this journey - https://www.facebook.com/Autism-Special-needs-Childrens-take-a-break-room-1614536215530904/?fref=ts

This page is just a snippet of what is going on in support behind the scenes

again I will continue to hold out hope that maybe, just maybe you can hear my voice and we can join together to making children’s dreams come true

Come on wovie world, wet n wild, sea world – aka Village Roadshow…. Thousands of special needs families are watching the next move - lets make it a good one

Danni